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The 1/3/1 rule for better writing
Welcome to today’s issue of Efikó, a weekly newsletter by me, Dozie Anyaegbunam, with a focus on content marketing, writing, social strategy, and living your best life. THANK YOU for being here! I appreciate you.
Hello 👋
Had a good week? Cos mine has been an interesting one.
We’ve had a flu rodeo going on at home for two weeks now. And my immune system caved a bit on Monday.
So, I’ve been battling it all week.
Then yesterday, Ottawa Public Health called us to say that Dodo needs to isolate as one of his classmates tested positive for COVID-19.
But asides from all this, the birthday wishes and gifts have been pouring in.
Adidas sneakers, an Apple Series 7 watch, another Nike sneakers, a personalized sweatshirt, a Dockers beanie hat, and more.
Plus, I had friends over on Saturday. I’m still in Cloud 9 from all the love.
Thank you, everyone.
Now to the business of the day.
The 1/3/1 rule
This past week, members of NEWville shared their writing for edits/feedback from other members of the community.
Sidenote: This is one thing I love about NEWville. The collaboration is beautiful to watch.
A common theme I noticed among most pieces I reviewed is we tend to assume that readers read our articles the same way they read physical books.
Word by word. Sentence by sentence. Paragraph by paragraph.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
People rarely read that linearly on the web. They skim.
They skim through your subheads.
They jump to the first sentence of the introduction.
If they can make sense of what you wrote while skimming and it’s a topic they are interested in, then they settle down to read the article.
What does all this mean?
It would be best to format your writing for the skimmers, or your readers won’t read it.
And one way to do that is the 1/3/1 rule. I learned this from Dickie Bush of Ship 30 for 30. Here goes:
(1) If a reader clicks and opens your article, Medium article, blog post, etc., and sees a giant wall of text, they are immediately going to feel overwhelmed (readers online are lazy, ok?).
(3) Instead, you want to use what we call the 1/3/1 opener. The 1/3/1 opener is where you open with one single sentence to “hook” the reader’s attention. Then, in the next paragraph, you have three sentences expanding on that first sentence—pulling the reader deeper into the piece.
(1) And then you end with another single sentence (just like this section right here).
See? 1/3/1.
Writing 4 - 5 sentence paragraphs is the fastest way to get readers of your article.
Switch between single-sentence paragraphs and multi-sentence paragraphs, people.
Here’s to better and faster writing!
If you read one thing
This beauty by Syreeta Akinyede is a great way to start your Saturday morning. Plus, it’s a short read.
Content tools
A content tool I discovered this week
I’m still collating this (send yours in) 👉🏾 today; I have a question. Can you all share your top five content writing tools? I’ll pick the top five from all the responses and share them with everyone. Leggo!
Content writing jobs
And here’s a Google Docs link that also includes high-paying pitching opportunities
All the best, folks. Would you please share with any of your friends/colleagues who might find this helpful?
My biggest takeaway this week 🚀
You don’t need more time. You need more focus.
What I’m thinking about
"Someone else living a good life does not prevent you from living a good life. There are many ways to win and plenty of space."
James Clear
If you would love me to review your writing and give you feedback, you can book a time here. Or just hit the reply button.
Thanks for reading this far. I am grateful!
Be good out there. If you can’t be good, be careful.
I’ll be back on 12/17.
Dozie
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